Congratulations to WIFT member Wanda Lepionka whose film The Last Night won Best Dramatic Short Film at the Women's International Film and Arts Festival, Miami in the USA recently. Wanda produced the film with David Strong (who also wrote it)
The film has been quietly gathering up accolades and has been in six International Film Festivals so far, nominated three times at the NZ Film Awards 2014, it won a Festival Director's Award and is also at the Madrid International Film Festival in July where it's nominated for three awards (Best Screenplay, Best Editor and Best Producer).
Here's a rundown on the storyline...
Isolated at night in mountainous Afghanistan and surrounded by militia, a young United Nations military advisor struggles to negotiate with a powerful warlord.
Inspired by true events this is a dark, serious, and high stakes story about a real subject - Afghanistan and the futility of Western efforts in trying to change it. It's about the reality of life and death in its coarsest and most primitive form, being played at under the fa�ade of friendship by seemingly reasonable men, knowing that in this hellish place, death is but a wrong-glance away.
We wish Wanda all the best for the Madrid film festival - Well done so far!
